National Latsis Prize

On 13 January the National Latsis Prize 2004 will be awarded to the St. Gallen professor of economics Simon Gachter in Berne Town Hall.

The Swiss National Science Foundation is presenting the CHF 100,000 prize to the professor, on behalf of the Geneva-based Latsis Foundation, for his exceptional contribution to research into human co-operation.
Why should self-centred people co-operate when they can gain more by behaving unco-operatively? Or, to put it differently, what prevents altruistic co-operation from disintegrating when it is threatened by the selfish behaviour of others? This is a key question for all social sciences as well as for behavioural biology, and in the context of this question Simon Gächter's findings are of fundamental importance. On 13 January the 39-year-old professor of economics at the University of St. Gallen will receive the National Latsis Prize for his research work on co-operation and non co-operation.
By means of experimental studies involving groups of students, Gächter has demonstrated for the first time that co-operation for the common good is guaranteed if it is possible to punish free riders. Indeed co-operative individuals will apply punishment even if they gain no benefits from doing so, but instead have to dig a little deeper into their own pockets. Gächter's model of "altruistic punishment", which he and co-author Ernst Fehr published in the journal "Nature" in 2002, turns all previous co-operation theories put forward by economists and biologists on their heads. Humans are no longer an essentially selfish "homo oeconomicus", but willing to co-operate for the common good even if there is no prospect of reputation or material gains. This is the significance of Gächter's study.
The National Latsis Prize is one of Switzerland's most prestigious scientific awards. It is awarded annually on behalf of the Geneva-based Latsis Foundation by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The CHF 100,000 award honours the outstanding scientific achievements of a research scientist aged 40 or less in Switzerland.
The award ceremony will take place in Berne Town Hall, Rathausplatz 2, at 10.30 a.m. on 13 January 2005. The speakers will be Prof. Heidi Diggelmann, past President of the SNSF Research Council, Dr Spiro Latsis from the International Latsis Foundation; Meinrad Perrez, President of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of the National Research Council; and Simon Gächter, winner of the National Latsis Prize 2004.
Prizewinner's address:,Prof. Simon Gächter,Research Institute for Empirical Economics,and Economic Policy (FEW-HSG),Varnbüelstrasse 14,CH-9000 St. Gallen,Switzerland,Tel.: [phone],E-Mail: [e-mail] ,http://www.few.unisg.ch/gaechter/sgaechter.htm
A portrait picture from Simon Gächter in high resolution can be downloaded under: http://www.snf.ch/downloads/latsis_05.tifThe text of this media release and pictures can be found on the Swiss National Science Foundations website at http://www.snf.ch/en/com/prr/prr_arh_05jan07.asp

Countries

Switzerland